He rented his Fall River property to a sober house provider; it turned into a nightmare

Saturday

Jun 17, 2017 at 9:26 PM

Mark Cave, who along with his wife Jill Cave, is retired from the Navy and now living in the Bahamas. He admits his is a cautionary tale and wants to provide a warning for other property owners.

By Jo C. Goode The Herald-News

FALL RIVER — What began as a chance meeting at a fast food restaurant between two strangers turned into a four-month nightmare for one man who agreed to rent out his property as a sober house to the founder of an alleged recovery living program.

Mark Cave, who along with his wife Jill Cave, is retired from the Navy and now living in the Bahamas. He admits his is a cautionary tale and wants to provide a warning for other property owners.

For his experience involved non-payment of a rental agreement, a fire, a trip to court and a difficult eviction effort.

Cave said his first encounter with Fall River resident James Senra, the founder of the sober house program Road to Restoration, in mid-January started with a friendly conversation at the Plymouth Street restaurant.

Senra, 43, asked why Cave was in the city and he replied that he was here to fix up his and his wife’s triple-decker at 623 Robeson St. to prepare it for sale.

“He said I run a sober house and I’m looking for new property. Would you be interested to rent it,” said Cave, and that Senra indicated he previously operated another sober house.

It would take some convincing for his wife to agree.

Sober houses

The Caves had never heard of the concept of sober houses but Senra put together a “pretty good package,” Cave said, including his involvement with the Massachusetts Alliance of Sober Houses, the organization that certifies sober houses.

“It looked like a pretty good thing and my wife and I are into helping people out. We’ve both been incredibly lucky,” Cave said.

By law, a sober house does not need certification, which sets standards and a code of ethics for the operation of sober houses, including services for clients in recovery, said Richard Winant, the president of the Board of Directors of MASH.

Nor does a non-certified sober house have to notify a community of its operations.

Winant said he is aware of Senra’s sober house operations.

“We stress to our certification staff that it should be an environment that would be good enough for you and your family members,” Winant said.

Despite Senra’s claim that he is about to be MASH certified in online recruitment most recently posted May 31 for the Road to Restoration sober house and as a condition of his lease with the Caves, Winant said Senra never received the certification.

“I have told him to stop using me as a reference and to stop using the MASH name,” said Winant. ” ... He paints a pretty picture but doesn’t walk the walk in any shape or fashion.”

There is currently only one certified sober house in the city for women which Winant owns, and none for men in the city. He called the situation an “absolute travesty.”

In April, the city building and fire code inspectors shuttered a sober house at 32 John St. that had no heat or hot water and a deficient fire-safety system leaving 16 recovering men displaced.

The agreement

A signed lease agreement between the Caves and Senra included, in addition to MASH certification, requirements that Senra would pay the home’s line of equity, insurance, taxes and utilities.

Cave said he agreed that after all expenses were paid, the balance would be split between them. Senra agreed those were the terms although Cave gave him two months to get the sober house certified, which Senra admits he did not.

Cave said he paid for a U-Haul to help move Senra and his clients move into 623 Robeson, his wife Jill paid for Senra’s business license and he was loaned $300 to help buy furniture for the men.

The sober house was up and running with a few clients, although legally the capacity was 20 men, by the end of January. Senra’s clients would pay a minimum of $560 for rental of a half-room, according to Cave.

Problems

The Caves headed for South Carolina for Mark’s shoulder surgery thinking everything was fine.

It was not.

Not expecting much rent money in February, Cave said: “But I expected him to attempt to pay the bills.”

For Senra, he claims the property had issues with the plumbing and electrical and brought in licensed professionals that told him the home was not up to code. Inspectors at the city Inspectional Services who had been to the property on at least two visits say there were no violations, even after a fire that occurred at the property in March. Senra said he believes his licensed experts over the city inspectors.

Inspectional Services Director Joseph Biszko dismisses Senra’s claim.

“I have 100 percent confidence in all of my inspectors. They know all the codes and Mr. Senra will soon find out,” Biszko said.

Senra said he offered to have the problems fixed, but they refused to authorize the work. He said he couldn’t fill the upper third floor because of low hot water pressure.

March rolled around with no rental payment still, although a promise had been made that a deposit would be in by March 5 — it was not. Senra stopped answering his phone Cave said when they called but responded with argumentative text messages complaining about the condition of the property. Cave showed copies of those text to a reporter.

Senra was told on March 8 to pay up or move out.

The fire

Then on March 9, a fire broke out in an attached shed to the Robeson multi-unit.

According to reports by The Herald News, the shed was totally engulfed but they were able to quickly put it out and no one was hurt and there was no interior damage to the building. The recovering men would be able to stay.

However, Senra didn’t notify the Caves until eight days later about the fire that caused over $75,000 worth of damage.

The Caves traveled back to the Robeson Street property to deal with the fire and discovered the residents were living with no heat.

“We noticed that approximately 13 clients huddled in coats and it was being heated by space heaters and ovens,” Cave said.

Senra, as per the lease agreement, failed to order and pay for oil.

Senra said he did call but the company refused to deliver because of alleged illegal fittings on the tanks.

Cave ordered the oil and there was no issue with the delivery.

Eviction

Cave contacted city building inspector Glenn Hathaway in hopes the building could be shut down and force Senra out. But despite Senra’s claims about code violations, Hathaway said there were none and by the time he arrived at the property the heat was already on and there was nothing he could do.

Hathaway said he is familiar with the problems the Caves have had with evicting Sena.

“He went through hell,” Hathaway said.

In April, Cave began eviction actions against Senra, who said he offered to pay $6,400 but they refused to take it.

In May, Cave and his attorney went to district court to get Senra evicted on May 14 when he agreed to vacate.

Then a new problem. One of the tenants took Cave to court to fight their eviction, claiming they were “guests” as is described in their agreement with Senra.

The theory didn’t fly and a constable removed approximately 13 men from the property.

Two sides

Senra said everything he’s claimed is true.

“The house was dangerous. The electrical wiring in the house was not up to code and a licensed electrician told me,” Senra said.

Cave is currently staying in his property as a contractor begins work on the damage from the fire. He said a conservative estimate that between February and April, Senra took over $19,000 from his clients without paying the Caves a dime.

The experience, he said, has been a hard learning experience for him and his wife.

“The whole thing, beginning to end, was a scam and it has hurt the people he’s supposed to be helping,” Cave said.

That doesn’t mean Senra and his Road to Restoration program are out of business.

On May 31, Senra posted a notice on Craigslist that he had available beds at his sober house located at 623 Robeson St.

However, last Friday he said he does not have an operating sober house at this time and needs to update the Craigslist post.